Throughout history head injury has been very common and has occurred in all levels of society. When a force vector is directed through the head each layer of contact, that is, the skin, bone, and brain is affected proportionately to the force involved. The skin can be crushed, cut or abraded. The bone can be bruised, cracked or depressed. The brain can be concussed, bruised (contused) or lacerated. When the brain is contused or lacerated, swelling occurs. The swelling can result from injury or disruption to a variety of cellular components of the brain including the endothelial membranes of blood vessels, membranes or support cells of brain cells and cellular membranes of the neuron. The increase in intracranial pressure is proportional to the volume of brain injured. Standard methods of intensive care management, which include steriods, mannitol, head elevation, hyperventilation, and fluid restriction, are only partially successful in the treatment of serious head injuries. Even with these treatment regimes there is a mortality rate of greater than 50%.
It is known that the severity of head injury is directly proportional to the increased pressure inside the head cavity housing the brain. For example, if intracranial pressure greater than 20 Torr is present the mortality rate is estimated at 45%. Doubling the pressure to 40 Torr increases the mortality rate to 74%. Increasing the pressure to 60 Torr, results in a 100% mortality rate. These mortality figures assume that current neural intensive care has occurred. Thus, at present, there is no method of treatment which can successfully treat severe head injury except early diagnosis and decompression of epidural, subdural and intracerebral hematomata. Currently, only methods of prevention are helpful. Thus, although the use of seat belts, air bags, restricted ethanol intake, careful driving, etc. all result in fewer severe head injuries, none of these approaches are helpful after the injury has occurred.
Major head injury primarily affects young people between the ages of 15-40 years of age. They are in their most productive years and in many cases provide the major support for their families. Thus it is important that a successful method of treatment be developed. The cephalic expansion apparatus and method of the present invention provides a new treatment increasing the chances of survival after severe head injury with brain swelling.